


The Guardian of All Things

by annathaema (moony)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First Kiss, Flashbacks, Getting Together, Graphic Description, I Do Not Understand How Space Time Works, M/M, Magic, Memories, Nightmares, POV Shiro (Voltron), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Season 7 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 17:26:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15690006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moony/pseuds/annathaema
Summary: As Shiro recovers, he discovers that his memories no longer belong to just him.—"So, she knows everything about you now, huh?" says Keith. "Probably more than I do, I guess.""Probably," says Shiro. "Does that matter?""Matters to me," mutters Keith, looking away. "You were mine, first."





	The Guardian of All Things

**Author's Note:**

> I have been in the Voltron fandom for about, oh, two weeks now? I finished S7 a few days ago and banged this out last night. No beta, don't actually have one for this fandom, so all mistakes and inconsistencies are my own and I apologize for being impatient and sloppy. I'm also still absorbing the show's (extensive) lore, so forgive me if I fucked anything up.
> 
> This story exists in a nebulous point during the first few episodes of S7, the beginning of the road trip back to Earth. It's probably better to just think of this as an AU though for the most part it's canon compliant.
> 
> ANYWAY. Here, have a goofy little story about the burden of memory. There's some angst, but there's also some smooching, I promise.

__

_Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things._

_Marcus Tullius Cicero_

_—_

_The first thing Shiro is aware of is of cold, hard metal against his cheek. He opens his eyes and regrets it because the room—cell? He's not sure yet—spins and his vision warps into fractals. He immediately closes them again and struggles to sit up without vomiting. His head aches like someone's sticking a pike through it._

_"Take it easy," says a voice to his left. "Easy, now." Soft but strong hands on his shoulders guide him up into a sitting position. "There we go. Ixby, do we have any water left?"_

_A rustling sound, then something cool and damp pressed against his lips. "Drink," says the voice. "The drugs leave you very thirsty." Shiro obeys, taking a single gulp of water. He nearly retches, but it feels good against his cotton tongue and soothes the burn in his throat as he swallows. He groans and opens his eyes again, and looks into three eyes staring back at him._

_"Gah!" He jerks away and the room pitches. He yelps and grabs his head, struggling to keep his eyes open and trained on the alien (oh god, it's an_ alien) _. The creature stares at him, all sagging jaw and sallow blue skin. All three eyes blink in unison, then individually._

_"Uh. Oh, Jesus," says Shiro, completely stricken. He knows he's being rude but he's not exactly feeling too polite right now. "I—"_

_"Please, be calm." The creature's humanoid features stretch into what Shiro thinks might be a smile. It seems friendly enough. Shiro relaxes_ _infinitesimal_ _ly. "I won't harm you."_

 _Shiro swallows hard and the room pitches again. He presses the heel of his hand to his temple. "What—sorry,_ who _are you? Where—"_

_"This is a Galra ship," says the creature. "You are a prisoner, like us."_

_"A Galra—" Shiro sits up too fast and pitches forward, and the creature catches him. Shiro's too dizzy to care about the eyes anymore. "Sam?" he croaks. "Matt? They— They look like me, human."_

_The being nods and seems to frown. "They've been taken by the guards. I heard them say that they were valuable for other purposes."_

_"Shit," says Shiro under his breath. He clutches at his hair and shuts his eyes for a moment against the throbbing pain, the rising panic. "_ Shit."

_He opens his eyes and looks at the alien. "My name is Shiro," he says. He offers his hand, and the creature stares at it in what Shiro can only describe as confusion. He drops his hand and coughs. "Thank you for helping me."_

_"I am Neem." The creature nods at him. He gestures to a scaly being next to him, covered in scattered tufts of hair and holding a packet of liquid in a hand-like appendage. "This is Ixby. He does not speak the way we do but he understands what we say."_

_Shiro nods at Ixby, whose entire body glows with a series of colored lights that Shiro believes is how he communicates. Shiro looks around the rest of the room. There are others in with them, but they've gathered into the far corner and are watching them with wary eyes (lots and lots of wary eyes). They look battered and haunted, and Shiro wonders how long they've been here._

_None of the Garrison saftey training prepared Shiro for this. They never talked about something like this ever happening. He doesn't know what to do. And his head is_ killing _him._

_God, he's so fucking scared._

_"Neem," he says, struggling to keep his voice steady. He takes a deep breath and wills himself to step out of his fear and push it aside to be dealt with later. He's had his moment; right now, he needs to_ survive _. "Tell me what you know."_

_Neem explains about the Galra, the arena, the experimentation. The genocide. The plans to colonize planets and drain them of resources, eventually conquering the universe entirely._

_Shiro swallows hard. If he was scared before, he's terrified now. He scans the room, desperately looking for something—anything—that could lead to a way out._

_There's nothing. There's_ nothing _._

_It's when Neem is telling him about Zarkon that the door slides open. A handful of guards storm the room, guns trained on Shiro. His eyes widen in horror as they approach._

_"No," he says, scrambling to his feet as the others scatter. He backs away until he can go no further, then drops into a fighting stance. He can barely see straight but he's not going down without a fight. "Back off!"_

_The guards knock Neem and Ixby to the side and grab Shiro by the arms. He struggles with everything he has, but his head screams in pain and he can't get his his feet under him, leaving his movements jerky and ineffective. It's nothing for one of the guards to knock him in the head again and make him see stars. This time he does vomit. He can hear the others whimpering in the corner._

_"Please," he whispers as he curls into a ball of agony and fear. "Let me go—"_

"Shiro?"

_There are more hands on him. "Please, let me go—"_

"Shiro, stop."

_"No, don't—"_

_The hands shake him, hard._

"Shiro!"

_"No!"_

Shiro blinks. He's not in a cell, and his head doesn't actually hurt. The absence of pain is almost as dizzying as the imaginary concussion. Neem and Ixby are nowhere to be seen, and the strong hands on his shoulders don't belong to a guard but instead to Krolia. He stares at her blankly for a moment, until his brain finally reboots and comes back online.

"Oh," he says, and he realizes he's breathing hard. He swallows and the inside of his mouth is like sandpaper. "Hi."

"You were having a dream," she says, pulling away. He's grateful she doesn't say _nightmare_. "It was loud. Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he says. He sits up and rubs the back of his neck, looking around the room to reassure himself that he is, in fact, not in a cell. He's in the pilot's bunk, stretched out on the bed where he's been on and off for days, trying to sleep off being dead and incorporeal and preserved in the brain of a magic space robot cat.

(It's been a weird few years. He's pretty tired.)

He runs his hand over his face and looks at her. "Keith okay?"

Her concern melts into amusement. "He's _fine_ ," she says. "He heard you before I did, told me to come check on you."

Shiro ducks his head sheepishly. Even though Krolia looks no older than he is, he knows she's got a few decades on him and frankly Shiro's kind of pleased to be mothered a little bit. It's been a long time and he's not afraid to admit that he really, _really_ misses his moms right now.

"Thanks," he says. "I'm okay. I just—It wasn't a dream, I remembered something. Memory."

"Mm," says Krolia. "The Princess said this would happen."

"What?"

Krolia moves back and sits on the floor. "When Keith explained how we restored your consciousness to this body, how much of it do you remember? I could tell you were having trouble retaining information in the beginning."

Shiro swallows hard when she says _this body_ , because he hasn't really tried to wrap his brain around _that_ , yet. "Most of it," he says. "It's amazing. Allura is remarkable."

Krolia nods. "She told us that your Lion unlocked the memories the Galra took from you," says Krolia. He doesn't correct her about Black. Every time he has, she's leveled him with an icy glare that makes him feel about three feet tall; she is _definitely_ Keith's mother.

Shiro blinks. "The Lion hacked the Galra's magic," he says, awed. "Does Pidge know about—"

Krolia smiles. "You didn't catch her whispering sweet nothings to it before we left?" Shiro laughs softly. "Allura also said that the Lion is preventing you from seeing all of those memories at once. The shock would kill you."

"Wow," says Shiro, eyebrows raised in surprise, even though he knows, having been inside her consciousness for months, that Black deeply _loves_ him. He'd never voice it aloud, even though he's pretty sure the others would say the same about their lions. He kind of wants to keep that to himself, for a little while anyway.

He smiles fondly and reaches out to pat the wall. "Thanks, girl," he murmurs. He looks at Krolia. "Is Allura really okay?" he asks. "It didn't hurt her, what she did, did it? I know she said she's fine, but..." He looks away, unable to put his concern into words.

"I believe her when she says she's fine," says Krolia, because she's unsettlingly perceptive. "She only possessed your consciousness for less than thirty ticks. It was very quick and, from what I could tell, painless for both of you."

Krolia leans her head back against the wall and looks up at the ceiling. "You are very fortunate to have her friendship, Shiro," she says. "You are all very lucky to have one another. I doubt you'd have made it this far, otherwise."

She says something else but Shiro's not listening. _She possessed your consciousness for thirty ticks._ What did that mean? What did she see, if she saw anything at all? Did she see _everything—_

_Oh god._

Shiro sits all the way up. "Is the wolf on board?" he asks, startling Krolia mid-sentence.

"Yes," she says, frowning. "Why?"

He swings his legs over the side of the bed and casts about for his pants. "Who's with Allura right now?"

Krolia taps her bottom lip with a claw. "Coran, I believe. And it's her turn with the cow."

Shiro nods. "Think you and Keith can handle Coran for a bit? "

"I suppose," says Krolia, sounding deeply unenthusiastic about it. "But Shiro, what's wrong?"

He looks at her and, for a moment, looks through her.

_Two nights ago, his dreams had been full of claws and fangs and shrieks of pain, the heady scent of gore, and a Champion standing among the dead. There's blood cascading from his face. He licks his lips. It's salty. It's not his._

_Four nights ago, he'd seen visions of a fellow prisoner who had died of her wounds in their cell. It took the guards several hours to discover and remove her body. The memory of the smell will never leave him._

_The night after his stint in the pod, he'd remembered the entirety of the removal of his arm. The Galra had not used anesthetic. Shiro remembers everything, right down to the grey of the butcher's gloves and the red that dripped from their fingers._

Shiro swallows against the lump in his throat.

"I think I need to talk to Allura."

 

—

 

A few moments later Shiro pops into Blue's cockpit and before Coran can react the wolf immediately blips them both away, leaving Shiro behind to wrinkle his nose at the faint aroma of cow. He steps up behind Allura's seat and tugs at a lock of her hair.

"Oh, Shiro!" she says, brightening when she looks up and spots him. "I'm so happy to see you up and about. How do you feel?"

"Corporeal," he says, and he's pleased when she laughs. "You know, I'd never realized how important being able to touch something is until I didn't have it anymore."

Allura wordlessly takes a hand off the controls and reaches up to touch his remaining one. He tangles their fingers together and for a moment they fly in companionable silence. Allura hums softly under her breath, content to just share her space with him. Shiro thinks, not unkindly, that he's probably  _very_ different company from Coran and Allura might be in need of a little breather.

But that's not why he's here.

Shiro clears his throat. "Allura—"

At the same time, she takes a deep breath. "Shiro—"

They look at each other. "You go first," she says, running her thumb along his knuckles.

Her touch should be soothing but Shiro's too keyed up to really notice. He's used to asking the hard questions, in a war you have to be, but this is one he really doesn't want to know the answer to. But he needs to know what she knows, so that he can... Do what, he's not sure, actually. Handle it. The way he handles everything else that gets thrown at him: with stoicism and positivity, just as he was trained.

"What did you see?" he asks hoarsely. "When you…" He doesn't know how to describe what she did. _Performed a goddamn miracle?_ "Did what you did, for me?"

"Shiro," she says, her smile fading and her voice edged with warning. "I won't—"

He can't let her deflect. "Allura, _please_."

She sighs and squeezes his hand. She puts Blue on autopilot so that she can twist in her seat and look up at him with her strong, sad eyes. Shiro knows the answer before she even opens her mouth, but he still needs to hear her say it.

"Everything, Shiro," she says softly. "I saw _everything_. Your entire life played out before my eyes in a matter of ticks."

He has to let go of her hand so that he can hold on to the back of her seat for support. "Oh, god," he croaks. If _he's_ remembering his time on the Galra ship, if he can feel the crushing isolation of the Black Lion’s consciousness, _she's_ experiencing it too. "I'm— I'm so _sorry_ , Allura."

"Shiro, no," she says, in the commander's voice that always makes the hair on the back of his neck stand up. "Do not apologize, do you hear me?" She grabs his hand again in both of hers and grips it tight. "Do _not_ apologize for the things that happened to you beyond your control."

He wants to yell—not at her, never at her—and scream and punch, but that won't get him anywhere. _Patience yields focus asshole_  says the Keith in his head, and Shiro pauses and breathes out slow. His hand stops shaking quite so hard.

"They've also happened to _you_ , though," he says. "And you got them all at once." He looks at her. "How are you okay?"

Allura smiles sadly. "It's the Altean alchemy I learned in Oriande. I can see your memories, I see your life through your eyes, I can recognize their meaning to you and understand them, but they are... Distant, somehow. I still feel sorrow for everything you've been through, but I am protected from the mental effects of such memories by the power that restored you to a corporeal form.

"I'm alright, Shiro," she says gently. "You needn't worry."

Shiro studies her for a long moment, looking for any sign that she might be hiding something, but it's her poise and the stern look in her eye, the presence of a leader, that makes his shoulders roll forward in defeat.

"Okay," he says. He is so _relieved_ he could pick her up and dance her around the tiny cabin, if he didn't think they'd seriously injure themselves. "That's—that's good."

"To be perfectly honest with you," she continues with a haughty sniff, "I'm _glad_ I've seen it. I'm sorry for violating your privacy, and you can be quite certain I will never tell another soul about any of it, but I'm _glad_ I share your memories. You _cannot_ bear such a burden alone, Shiro, I won't allow it."

"It's my burden, though. It belongs to me." Shiro doesn't know how to explain this, especially to someone still so alien to human nature, and he doesn't know how to keep his voice from sounding so meek when he says, "It's all I have left of myself."

"That's _not_ true," says Allura fiercely. "You have _love_ , Shiro. So much of it, I _felt_ it." She fixes him with an intense stare that makes Shiro feel exposed. "Your heart is so big, Shiro. All that they've done to you, all those wretched, terrible things they've put you through, and your heart is still so full. And we all feel it, Shiro. All of us. You have to know that."

Shiro doesn't realize he's crying until he pulls his hand free and rubs at the itch in his eyes. "Allura, I—"

"I felt the Black Lion when I retrieved your consciousness," she says. "I felt its connection to you —it's _marvelous_ , Shiro. Your bond with your lion is so steady and true, and your bond with your team is just as strong. You may not be leading Voltron any longer, but you are still a leader in their eyes.

"And Keith will always seek your guidance," she adds. "You needn't worry about that. I know you do worry, Shiro. But he'll always need you."

Shiro shakes his head. "Maybe. But he's his own man, now," he says. "He's a long way from the kid I knew back on Earth. He's still very much _Keith_ , the _heart_ of him is the same, but he's definitely— He's definitely changed. It's strange that there are parts of him that I don't recognize anymore."

He looks out through the viewscreen. "When this is all over I can't wait to get to know him again."

He hears Allura sigh and realizes he's been musing out loud. He ducks his head and she giggles.

"I do so like the hair," she says. "It makes it so much more obvious when you blush."

Shiro shakes his head. "I meant it, though." They're passing a moon—a quick glance at the readings indicates it's an ice moon and not suitable as a rest stop—and the light spills into the cockpit, making Allura radiant. "If you know everything about me, then you know everything about him. At least his past and our time at the Garrison, and a lot of secrets no one else is supposed to know."

"Yes." She smiles. "And those secrets are safe as well." She frowns slightly. "Do you think I ought to tell him?"

Shiro nods. "I'll tell him," he says. "He and I need to talk, anyway." He scratches the back of his neck. "He told me—He said that there was a fight, he's told me what happened, but I know he's holding back some details that, knowing him, are probably pretty important."

He looks at Allura and catches the shifty look in her eyes. "You know something," he says carefully. He doesn't want to sound accusatory, but if she's hiding something he's got to find out what. "What isn't he telling me?"

"Shiro—"

His eyes burn. " _Please_."

Allura sighs, clearly unsettled. "While connecting your consciousness to this—your body," she says, "I was able to see the memories of the clone as well." She gives him a guilty look. "I thought about just—getting rid of them, because they'd only hurt you. But they're yours and it is not my place to make that decision for you. Also, I thought they might be valuable to us in other ways—forgive me, Shiro."

"Of course," says Shiro softly. "Allura,  _always_."

She smiles gratefully. "Those memories," she goes on, "are mingled with yours and they will come to you in time. They belong to you as much as they belonged to him."

Allura looks away. "I know all about the battle," she says in a small voice. "And I can guess at what he isn't telling you."

Shiro's breath catches in his throat. What has he done that she won't tell him? He sifts through his mind, hoping to dredge up some idea of what she might be talking about, some scrap of an image of...  _something_ , but there's nothing there at all. His thoughts slip through his fingers like starlight.

 _I hurt him_ , he thinks. _I said something, did something. And it was_ bad _._

"Whatever I did," he says, unable to keep the horror from his voice. "I want to know so that I can—" He falters. "I don't know. I don't know _what_ to do for him. But I know he shouldn't deal with this alone."

He puts his hand on her shoulder. He wonders if he looks as desperate as he feels.

" _What happened_ , Allura?"

She tells him.

 

—

 

When Shiro returns to Black, Krolia and Coran are nowhere to be seen.

"They're with Pidge," Keith says. "She's got _Zelda_ somehow. She's going to let them play for a while so I can get some peace and quiet.. Mom's great and everything but she _looms_ a lot, which is a little weird, and Coran is... Coran."

"Coran is Coran." Shiro nods. He gestures over his shoulder. "Do you want me to go? I can go check on Hunk and Romelle."

"You're fine," says Keith. "You're probably going to go to sleep anyway, huh?"

Shiro shakes his head. "No," he says. "Sick of sleeping. I thought I'd hang out up here for a while."

Keith visibly perks up and something warm unfurls in Shiro's rib cage. "Cool." He gestures at a nearby flight case. "Mom dragged that up here to sit on."

Shiro pulls it over so that he can sit next to Keith. "Where are we?"

Keith pulls up a map. "Heradian galaxy," he says. He points to a tiny blip on the map. "Coran said there's a populated moon off the third planet that's less than a day away. It's part of the Rebellion. We can stop there."

"Good." Shiro exhales. "We could use some shore leave." He pauses. "Hey, there's something I need to tell you. Something you should know."

"Yeah?" Keith glances at him and there's a tiny line of worry between his brows. Shiro wishes he hadn't put it there. "What is it?"

"When Allura took on my consciousness," says Shiro, "she—she could see. Uh—"

Keith goes very still. "What did she see?"

"Everything," says Shiro. He reaches out and puts his hand on Keith's shoulder. "She saw my entire life, Keith. Start to, well, finish, and a little beyond."

"Oh," says Keith. "Okay." He doesn't look at him.

"And, uh." Shiro sighs in frustration. "Everything I know about you, she knows." He ducks his head. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," says Keith. "Makes sense that'd happen. Well." He steers Black around a small asteroid. "Can't be helped."

Shiro slumps and stares at the floor. Keith sounds so resigned. Shiro knows—from Keith himself—that when you've been a foster kid for most of your life, privacy is precious. He'd told Shiro he'd had very little privacy growing up so he'd clung tight to what he did have. This situation, Shiro knows, is a huge violation for him. To him, this is a security breach.

"I guess if anyone had to know, she's a good one," says Shiro, because he doesn't know what else to say.

Keith grunts. "She won't tell anyone," he says. His voice has a funny edge to it, hard and brittle. "But man, for just once I'd like a _choice_ in what happens to me."

Shiro squeezes Keith's shoulder. "Tell me about it," says Shiro. He clears his throat. "Also, she— She saw the clone's memories, too," he adds quietly.

Keith slams his hand down on autopilot and whirls around to look at him. "Did she tell you about the fight?" he asks. "You aren't— Whatever she told you— That wasn't you, that was a _clone_."

"I asked her to tell me, Keith." Shiro stares him down. Keith looks a little like his old self, skittish and itching to fight his way out of the situation. Shiro's relieved to see that there's still some youth left in Keith's war-weathered eyes. "I was there. They're my memories. I have a right to them."

He reaches out and touches the tip of his fingers to the burn on Keith's cheek. He can feel how tense he is, how hard Keith's trying not to flinch away. Shiro's heart sinks. He touches the shriveled skin, tracing the edges of it.

"I gave this to you," he whispers, a little awed and a lot horrified. "She told me and I remembered. I can still _smell_ it."

"Shiro—"

Shiro glides his thumb over the scar as though he could smooth it away. "The things I said to you…"

"You didn't mean them," says Keith. "I know they aren't true." He closes his eyes but not before Shiro sees a shine on his lashes. "That fucking _witch_ —"

"It's one thing to know it wasn't my fault," says Shiro, "and I know that logically. But I remember the feel of the blade. I remember the look in your eyes. Fact remains: I did it."

Keith sighs, all the fight gone out of him. "Yeah." He covers his eyes with one hand and takes a deep, shivery breath. "You did."

Shiro pulls away. There's a long silence, more uncertain than awkward. Keith's staring straight ahead with his hands on the controls, though Black is still on autopilot. Shiro can see his jaw twitching. "Keith–"

"So, she knows everything about you, huh?" Keith interrupts, sounding flat and unimpressed. "Probably more than I do, I guess."

"Probably," says Shiro. He stifles a small, weak smile. Even time and age can't really temper Keith's competitive nature. "Does that matter?" he asks, curious.

"Matters to me," mutters Keith, looking away. "You were mine, first."

Shiro stares at him. He remembers what else Allura had told him.

"You have to know, Keith," he murmurs. Keith jerks his head up, a little wild-eyed and wary as all hell. Shiro reluctantly meets his eyes but holds his gaze. He's faced down the worst of what the universe has to offer, but this is _Keith._  It's testing and shaking his courage to its core. "Don't you?"

"Shiro?" Keith's voice is so quiet it's nearly lost in Black's ambient hum. "What—"

Shiro grabs Keith's hand and presses it to his own chest, over his heart. "She doesn't have all of me," he says in a rush. "Not like you do." He grits his teeth. "It's like you said, you had me first. This," he squeezes Keith's hand against his shirt. "This is yours."

Keith's expression crumples. "She told you."

"Yes," says Shiro, yanking Keith close and wrapping his arm around him awkwardly. The cockpit is not the place for a confession, if that's what this is. "Jesus, Keith—how do you not know— _me too_."

Keith makes a sound like a wounded animal and wraps both arms around Shiro's shoulders, buries his nose in Shiro's hair. "I'm sorry that was the first time I've ever told you," says Keith. "I just—I wanted you to know, in case. Even if it wasn't really you. I just… I hoped you were in there, somewhere."  
  
"You could say it again," says Shiro. "I'd like to hear it directly from you."

"I love you." Keith's voice is soft but sure and sincere. "I love you," he says again, a little more forcefully. "I do."

"You do." Shiro smiles against Keith's neck. "I know you do. Me too, Keith. How I love you."

Keith shudders around him. "I've tried to figure out what you are to me for years. You've been so many things, and there's so many things I still— I want you to be. But nothing ever sounded right. After I told my mother all about you she said the Galra have a word for the person you're closest to." Shiro can feel Keith's arms tighten around him. "It means mentor, friend, family, uh..." He hesitates, expression unreadable. "Lover, partner."

"What's the word?" Shiro asks.

Keith says something in what Shiro suspects is a perfect Galran accent. He wonders how much of the language he knows after spending two years with his mother with nothing much else to do but train and talk. He wants to ask Keith for more Galran words, but he gets the feeling this one will be the most important one he'll ever learn.

"It means _everything in another,_ " says Keith. "It's for someone you'd go to war for. Someone you'd go to the edges of the universe for and then jump right off after them. Someone you'd fight for even if neither of you are getting out alive."

"Sounds familiar," says Shiro. Keith touches Shiro's chin and tilts his face up so that they're seeing eye to eye. Keith's are tired and over-bright like a star Shiro can see clear as day but doesn't know the coordinates for. He cannot look away.

Keith slides his hand over Shiro's cheek, runs his thumb over his bottom lip. He leans in close and Shiro stops breathing.

"Galra fight for _keeps_ ," Keith says into his ear, voice sweet and knife-sharp.

As Keith pulls back with a fierce grin, Shiro shivers. "Does that word apply to me?" he asks, all breath and heartbeat caught in his throat.

"You are the fucking _definition_ of that word," says Keith with a mirthless laugh. "Listen, I don't care how we are with each other. I'm always going to look up to you and respect you, you're always going to be that idiot who taught me stupid stunts on a hoverbike and made me watch _Star Wars_ nine times in one semester, you're always going to be my teammate and our leader, we'll always be equals, and—and I'm always going to w-want you." The stumble is immediately corrected by a look of determination; Keith sits up straighter, his shoulders back like he's holding up the weight of countless worlds.

He's the bravest man Shiro has ever known.

"I'll take whatever you want to give me," says Keith. "Just— You're _mine_ , I _love_ you, and if you disappear again I will burn the fucking universe down planet by planet until I bring you home."

"Yeah," says Shiro. "Yeah, I'm yours." He pulls Keith down and bumps their foreheads together. "However you'll have me."

Keith tilts Shiro's face up and kisses him, soft and aching, like someone who's been waiting to do it his whole life.

Before, Shiro would never have seen this as an option. He'd loved Keith back on Earth, that wasn't new. Anyone who'd seen the way he fought for that kid had known their affection for each other ran deep, a kind of bond he hadn't really found with anyone else. It'd driven Adam crazy. But it had never crossed Shiro's mind that Keith would ever be more than one of his closest friends and a future colleague in the sky. And Keith seemed content in that as well. They'd never talked about it.

But that was Before. So much has happened since the Kerberos mission departed Earth, and now there's a lot of space and time—and space-time, however that works—between them. Shiro had missed Keith desperately while trapped in the Lion, frustrated and screaming into the void, but he wonders now if that distance isn't bittersweet. It has allowed them grow and evolve as individuals apart from one another and then come back together as men on the same footing, ready to figure out the next move.

Which is, apparently, this.

(Shiro is not complaining.)

His mouth opens up to Keith's, sharing breath and warmth. They kiss for a few lazy ticks before parting and pressing their foreheads together again, looking at each other until they can't help but laugh quietly. Shiro's a little embarrassed for reasons he can't put a name to, a little devastated by the smug smile on Keith's face, and lot happier than he has any right being. He touches Keith's face and kisses him again and again and again.

Suddenly, the air begins to _buzz_ with a strange, electric energy, the way magic feels right before something—usually explosive—happens. A low, rolling thunder surrounds them like an embrace. It takes both of them by surprise and they pull apart, looking around in confusion.

"What the—" Keith looks over at the instrument panels. "Weird. Nothing is wrong? No alerts, no Galra, no mechanical issues. Nothing."

He looks at Shiro and shrugs. The noise continues, much louder than the normal ambient noise of the lion. The vibrations are strong and steady, the rhythm almost like breathing, and suddenly Shiro knows what it is.

"The Lion," he says, a grin spreading slowly across his face. He looks at Keith. "Is _purring_."

Keith bursts out laughing and puts his hands on the armrests to feel for himself. Shiro closes his eyes and sends every ounce of his gratitude to Black for making Keith look so carefree, if even just for a moment.

**_That's not because of me, my love._ **

Shiro's eyes pop open. "The lions gossip about us," he says with a smile. Keith looks up at him. 

"No way," he says. "Did you hear that when you were with Black?"

Shiro nods. "They're  _very_ invested in Lance and Allura. There are bets."

"How do magic space— Nope. Not asking. Nevermind." He grabs Shiro by the collar. "Come here."

The purring intensifies, shaking the cockpit until Pidge contacts them to make sure they're okay.

"I'm detecting some heavy activity coming from Black," she says. "What— _whoa_."

"What?" asks Shiro, pulling away from Keith as the other comms light up with shouts of surprise. Keith makes a noise of protest. "What is it?"

"The lions?" Lance sounds like he's just woken up. "They're going off like a phone on vibrate!"

"Oh-em-gee, they're  _purring_ ," says Hunk, sounding delighted. "I didn't know they could do that out loud!"

"What happened?" asks Pidge. "Why now?"

"Uh." Shiro coughs into his hand. He avoids looking Keith in the eye. "Guess they're in a good mood."

"Happy we're going home, maybe?" adds Keith, just a little too quickly and sounding way too cheerful than usual for himself. Shiro winces and swats him gently upside the back of the head. Keith gives him a pained look and mouths _sorry_.

"What was that?" Shiro can _hear_ Lance narrow his eyes. "Was that _Keith?_ You sound awful chipper, buddy. You feelin' okay?"

"Who's over there with you?" asks Pidge. "I've got Keith's mom and Coran."

"I've got Romelle," says Hunk. There are noises in the background. "She says hi!"

"I've still got the cow," Allura chimes in, definitely sounding thrilled about it. There's a plaintive moo across the channel. "Didn't I just hear Shiro on Keith's comms?" she adds. Her voice carries a suggestive weight, and her smile is audible. Keith groans.

Shiro slaps his hand over his eyes.  _I take it all back_ , he thinks to himself. _She's dead to me_.

"Oh," says Pidge. The comms go silent for a tick before there's an burst of shouting and whistling. Keith rolls his eyes and cuts the line, leaning back in his seat with a huff.

"Lance is _never_  going to leave us alone about this," he says with a Neanderthal glare at his dashboard. It's so reminiscent of Keith on Earth that Shiro feels a momentary pang of something he identifies as grief. He _misses_ that kid. But the man in front of him is so _interesting_ , more than any interstellar voyage Shiro has ever been on.

He squeezes Keith's knee and pecks his forehead before getting to his feet. "We should probably shuffle passengers again for a while," he says, glancing at the controls again and checking on their location. "Maybe Romelle could come here for a while, and I'll go check in with Hunk?"

"But—" Keith gives him a significant look. "We just, I thought we could, you know." He waves a hand in the air. "Talk."

Shiro smirks. "Your wolf friend could pop back in here at any time and anyone could be with him. And I _really_ don't want an audience when we talk, Keith." He lifts an eyebrow. "Do you?"

Keith gives him a grumpy look that slowly stretches into a crooked, dangerous grin.

"Alright," he says. "Next stop, we find a spot to ourselves and _talk_."

Shiro nods and leans in. Keith rubs their noses together with a Cheshire grin. "Is this really happening?" he asks. "Are we really doing this?"

“You know my heart,” says Shiro in lieu of an answer, closing his eyes and breathing Keith's closeness. “I left it with you."

“I _do_ know your heart.” Keith growls a little and his fingers—nails a little sharper than he used to keep them—curl in Shiro’s shirt. “I know it like the stars. I know your course like I know my _own_ heart. I’ve flown it all my life.”

“And you've always flown true,” says Shiro. “It’s what I love about you.”

Keith just kisses him again.

Suddenly Black does a barrel roll and the comms light up again with excited chatter. Keith and Shiro cling to each other as the purring becomes deafening and drowns out their laughter.

 

—

 

 ** _I believe I called it,_** says Black. 

 ** _Oh, shut up_** **,** says Blue.

 

**[FIN]**

**Author's Note:**

> This is 100% absolutely a nod to the Vulcan T'hy'la, a word to describe a friend/brother/lover/partner. I thought it'd be cool if the Galra had something similar. Thanks for the inspiration, Gene. LLAP
> 
> Find me at annathaema on Tumblr and annathaemah on Twitter. I'm boring. :)
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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